Mattias Samuelsson spent last season turning himself into one of Buffalo’s most dependable pieces, and the numbers back up the eye test.
The Sabres’ blue line took a major step forward in 2025-26, and Samuelsson was right in the middle of it. The 26-year-old defenseman didn’t just stay on the ice more often than he had before - he delivered the kind of all-situations value that made him one of Buffalo’s most important players. In this grading series, that kind of leap earns the highest possible mark.
Mattias Samuelsson
Position: Defense
Grade: A+
The grade isn’t a claim that Samuelsson was Buffalo’s single best player. It’s a reflection of how far his game has come. He’s developed into one of the league’s top all-around defensemen, and last season felt like the clearest sign yet.
Health has long been the biggest knock on Samuelsson, but he put together 78 games in 2025-26, the most he’s played in any of his six NHL seasons. He also set career highs across the board with 13 goals, 28 assists and 41 points. That kind of production, paired with stronger responsibility, is why Lindy Ruff leaned on him more than ever.
Two numbers tell the story best. First, the workload: Samuelsson averaged 22:50 of ice time per game, a jump of more than three-and-a-half minutes from his 2024-25 average of 19:18, and more than a minute and a half above his career average of 21:01. Second, the plus/minus: Samuelsson finished at plus-41, a massive leap from his previous career best of plus-14, set in 2022-23.
Plus/minus is never a perfect stat, but a jump that dramatic still says plenty about how much Samuelsson’s game matured. He looked calmer, safer and more trusted in every zone.
And Buffalo has him locked in at a bargain. Samuelsson’s $4.285-million annual salary runs through 2029-30, which only adds to his value as he moves deeper into his prime. He even logged more ice time than Owen Power last season, another sign of how central he became to what the Sabres were doing.
Samuelsson doesn’t carry the same spotlight as Power or captain Rasmus Dahlin, but that doesn’t make him any less vital. His steady presence, low panic threshold and confidence in his own game made him one of Buffalo’s most valuable contributors.
For a Sabres team coming off a strong 2025-26, Samuelsson looks like a player they can keep building around. Along with Dahlin and Power, he gives Buffalo a top-three group on defense that stacks up with almost anyone. And after the Sabres’ summer move that sent Bowen Byram to the Chicago Blackhawks, Samuelsson’s rise only looks more significant.
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